Our school cafeterias, food preparation centers and the caring employees who work in them all play a critical role in the educational process by providing nutritious meals for children.

Many times the meal students receive at school are the best or only meal they will get each day. Without food, they cannot learn. Research shows good nutrition enables students to meet their educational and physical potential.

Our schools serve more meals each day than all the restaurants in the state. However, it’s the people in the kitchens who really make the state’s food programs work. Food service workers prepare meals for thousands of students and then serve it and even clean up afterwards.

Cooks, servers, clerks and delivery drivers all work hard to cut costs and maintain efficient, safe and healthy food service programs. In fact, more than 95 percent of all California school menus analyzed by the government met or exceeded federal targets for important vitamins and nutrients.

What we do:Food Service Professionals (PDF 154KB)
Food service professionals make sure that everything the students eat meets nutritional guidelines and is savory and presentable. They are in charge of keeping the cafeteria, kitchen, cooking equipment and utensils clean and in orderly condition.

Who's Cooking School Lunch?
Award-winning cookbook authors Georgeanne Brennan and Ann Evans have provided innovative and successful professional development to California school districts interested in cooking from scratch. After hearing compelling stories from frontline cooks, they decided to celebrate the lives of these extraordinary people who are cooking school lunch. They launched the Who's Cooking School Lunch? blog in 2012. In 2013, they added an interactive element to allow school food service workers to communicate with each other.

Our mission: To improve the lives of our members, students and community.